Russian actress Chulpan Khamatova, known for her roles in Good bye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker (2003) or more recently in Petrov Fever (2021) by his compatriot Kirill Serebrennikov, announced that he had left his country for Latvia, denouncing the war in Ukraine.
In an interview with Russian journalist Katerina Gordeeva and broadcast on YouTube on Sunday, the 46-year-old actress announced that she had been in the Latvian capital for several weeks.
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“We are currently in Latvia, in Riga (…) because I cannot say that the pain of other people, the tragedy that other people are going through, the humanitarian catastrophe, has anything to do with a liberation“, explains Chulpan Khamatova.
“I wasn’t in Russia, I was on vacation when the war started. At first I thought we had to wait, then I signed a petition against the war, then I was made to understand that it would be better not to return to Russia“, she continues.
According to her, two options are available to her if she wishes to return to her country without going through the prison box: “stop saying that it’s a war, that it’s a tragedy (…)” Where “ask forgiveness for not supporting the military operation“. But, she assures, “I am not able to ignore what I see with my own eyes (…) I know that I am not a traitor (…) I deeply love my country“.
Trained at the Kazan Theater School and then at the Russian Academy of Theater Arts in Moscow, Chulpan Khamatova made her film debut in 1998. She became famous with Luna Papa (1999) by Bakhtiar Khoudojnazarov which earned her the prize for best actress at the Honfleur Russian Film Festival. Considered one of the best Russian actresses of her generation, she then split between cinema, theater and television.
In mid-March, a Bolshoi star ballerina, Olga Smirnova, announced that she would slam the door of the prestigious Russian troupe after denouncing the war in Ukraine.